


la belle dame sans merci

by drowninglovers



Series: alive and well animal pals [1]
Category: The Terror (TV 2018)
Genre: Gen, this is very silly, tiny monkey fashion show, what else do i tag this as
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 10:13:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21336559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/drowninglovers/pseuds/drowninglovers
Summary: Nobody is quite sure who the first one to start making her clothing is, but one day she scampers over the shoulders of the ABs as they line up for lunch wearing a tiny shirt to match her pants. It’s nothing special, no fancy detail, navy blue like most everything else they wear. Whoever made it must have cared a great deal, to make sure it fit her perfectly.
Series: alive and well animal pals [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1571461
Comments: 19
Kudos: 39
Collections: The Terror Bingo (2019)





	la belle dame sans merci

**Author's Note:**

> -inspired by a very silly discord convo about the men on erebus making little outfits for jacko in attempts to win her favour. love that little monkey.  
-also a fill for my terror bingo card for the prompt 'jacko'  
-title is from (yes) the poem of the same name by john keats

Almost as soon as the ship leaves port in Greenhithe, Jacko is accepted as a valuable member of the crew. It’s a nearly unanimous decision, apart from Dr. Stanley who calls her a ‘destructive little beast’ and bans her from the sickbay (which is probably a smart decision in the end, because there are any number of dangerous substances or tools she could get into), and Lt. Le Vesconte who deems her a ‘biscuit thief and a menace’.

In truth, she's not the most reliable crew member. She’s never on time and has difficulty following orders. Monkeys are intelligent creatures but it’s dubious that she knows how to tie a knot or use a spyglass. Or, if she does have these abilities they take a firm backseat to her desire for mischief. Even so, the crew loves her halfway between a soft toy and a strange, fuzzy child. And, like any well-loved companion, she sees her fair share of gifts. If one is being frank, a more apt comparison would probably be that she is some chilly, unattainable beloved and the crew of the  _ Erebus _ are competing knights for her affections. 

Nobody is quite sure who the first one to start making her clothing is, but one day she scampers over the shoulders of the ABs as they line up for lunch wearing a tiny shirt to match her pants. It’s nothing special, no fancy detail, navy blue like most everything else they wear. Whoever made it must have cared a great deal, to make sure it fit her perfectly.

“It’s about time,” George Chambers jokes as the monkey anchors her little feet on his shoulder. He’s never been on a ship that’s had such an exotic pet before. Monkeys are fashionable companions, he’s been told, but fashionable for people like the Franklins and he’s never seen one before. “S’not proper for a little lady to be going through a ship full of men without wearing a shirt!” This earns a laugh from the surrounding men, a good-natured elbow to the ribs from David Young. John Hartnell’s loud, infectious laugh echoes around the mess.

After that, it becomes a competition. Whoever can make the best clothing for Jacko wins her favour (though nobody’s sure what the currency equivalent of Jacko’s favour is), and whoever’s clothing is rejected is doomed to have bad luck for an unspecified period of time. The stakes are raised when Mr. Wall, of all men, creates a frilly white dress for her, like a child’s christening gown. Fashion or tradition doesn’t seem to have much bearing on Jacko’s enjoyment of the garment, unfortunately. She squirms the entire time she’s dressed and afterwards sits pouting with her arms crossed over her chest in a distinctly human manner. The effect is somewhat unnerving. 

10 seconds is all it takes for her to wrench the dress over her head and leave it in a pile on the floor. 

🙈🙈🙈

Mr. Bridgens doesn’t mind her being in the ship’s library. Her constant chattering allows him the illusion of dialogue. He can pretend he’s talking to Henry about books. Being  _ Erebus _ ’s librarian is not technically part of his duties, but nobody is better suited to it than him. If there wasn’t  _ someone _ to rearrange the books after the crew leave them around with no regard for organization, nobody would be able to find suitable reading material.

At the present Jacko is perched on the top of the shelf filled with memoirs from other explorers. She’s got a thin scarf wrapped ‘round her neck in addition to a red sweater not dissimilar to his own (he’d guess it to be Mr. Hoar’s work, he spends enough time with her in the captain’s cabin), but she’ll need more than that as they pass Greenland in favour of more frigid climes. 

That night, after the officers have been prepared for bed, John Bridgens sits by lamplight and sews a tiny hat from a leftover scrap of felt. Unfortunately, he doesn’t consider that Jacko might not want her ears squashed uncomfortably against her head when he tries to fit it on her. Lucky for both of them, ear holes are an easy solution. She cheers — at least he thinks it’s a cheer, it’s an exclamation of delight at least — when her ears fit perfectly in her new hat. With one last little squeal, she scampers out of the room, presumably to show off her new accessory. 

🙈🙈🙈

From Mr. Morfin, she’s gifted a tiny vest which makes her look like an organ grinder’s peddling companion. She accepts the vest with some reluctance. She doesn’t wear it as often as she wears the blouse she got from Billy Orren or the tiny red jacket Pvt. Pilkington stitched to resemble his own uniform. Nobody’s gotten their hands on enough gold ribbon to piece together a pair of epaulettes for her, but that’s just a matter of time.

Lt. Gore sews a pocket onto one of her shirts when he gets the chance. It’s perfectly shaped for holding little morsels of food she steals off the table during officers’ meetings. When Lt. Le Vesconte has a biscuit halfway to his mouth only for Jacko to swoop in and put it in her pocket, he goes an impressive shade of red, and Gore laughs until he’s hoarse. 

During Mr. Goodsir's examination of her, as he examines all the crew for signs of sickness, he must strip off two sweaters before he can hold a tube to her tiny heartbeat. Behind him, Dr. Stanley looks on reluctantly. This is the only way he allows Jacko to be in the sickbay, with his supervision. 

“What the men get out of dressing her up like some furry fashion plate I don't understand," Stanley grumbles from the dark corner where he's lurking. This sentence is very pointedly directed at the small pile of clothing, including a pair of boots modelled after those worn by Commander Fitzjames, neatly folded and ready for the patient once she's finished with her check-up. 

"Does your daughter not enjoy playing with dolls, Dr. Stanley?" Goodsir counters, thinking of the little girl he's seen the other surgeon sketch on quiet nights in the empty sickbay. How much of Stanley's cloudy disposition is natural and how much of it results from being separated from his family, he doesn't know but, he reckons that if the young Miss Stanley were to request a new outfit for a beloved doll, her father would gladly indulge her. "I believe it to be the same principle." 

Stanley grunts at this remark, leaving the doctor and patient alone in the sickbay. Perhaps it's simply because he's tired, or has better things to do. But maybe, just maybe, he's thawing to the two of them. 

"Between you and me, Jacko, I think he likes you more than he cares to admit," he confesses. 

She chitters in response, reaching out two tiny hands to cup the side of his face. Sweet as she is, it’s hard getting her to sit still long enough for a physical.

"Yes, he also could be jealous that nobody's making  _ him _ nice clothes."

🙈🙈🙈

Eventually there gets to be something of a system for determining which clothes Jacko will like and which ones she will fling away in disgust. Since Mr. Wall's first disastrous attempt at a dress, several more have been offered up as tokens. The longest she wore one before wiggling out was five and a half minutes. A deep purple frock with a tail hole that the others lacked, courtesy of Mr. Collins. Beyond dresses, she seems to prefer sweaters to shirts, understandable given the climate, and rotates through several pairs of pants but has a fondness for the pair she first boarded the ship in. Scarves are generally a risk lest she gets tangled on something as she hops from shoulder to shoulder, swinging between men like jungle vines though she almost certainly has lived her entire life in captivity 

Mr. Bridgens' hat is an old favourite of hers, and quite a trendsetter with the ear holes. His sewing too practiced and steady sets the standard for all clothing. When John Strickland offers up a pair of short pants, clearly nervous at the monkey's impending rejection, she tosses them back in his face. The reason given by his fellow sailors is the sloppiness of his stitches, too large and slightly lopsided. Jacko has received many a trinket, she's become quite a lady of taste. The promise of bad luck if she doesn't like her clothes appears to have some truth to it. In addition to the blow his ego must have experienced after such crushing public humiliation, Strickland also suffers a blow to the head when he trips over Fagin in the hold and tumbles into a collection of crates. Dr. Stanley does not believe the excuse of 'I tripped over the cat', nor does he accept 'Jacko disapproved of my stitching and cursed me with bad luck' as an adequate explanation for why the young sailor made such a silly mistake. 

It's the brothers Hartnell who secure the top prize in this unofficial competition. Together they manage to make a tiny AB uniform, just like the ones they're wearing. 

John kneels in supplication where Jacko is sitting on a long table in the orlop, combing her fur for nits. In his hands, he holds out the uniform. It’s a lazy Sunday following Sir John’s sermon, and most of the men are lazily keeping themselves occupied with laundry or recreation activities. This is to say that there’s quite an audience for what might transpire.

"A gift, your ladyship." Tom intones from behind. He gets recognition for the effort put into maintaining composure, despite his voice wavering as he swallows back laughter. 

Around them, men have stopped working or pretending to work while they watch for Jacko's reaction. This could either be the most exciting thing to happen on board in recent memory, or it could be a crushing defeat for the Hartnells and their hard work. 

Jacko examines the outfit in John's outstretched hands. Takes tiny steps toward him. Not a single soul on deck dares breathe. Bit by bit, Tom is inching away from the scene in case something goes horribly, horribly wrong. And then, Jacko's deft, thieving, little fingers wrap around the lovingly-crafted AB jacket. She pulls it right out of John's outstretched palms and hugs it tightly to her chest before letting out a series of delighted chirps. 

And that's how the HMS  _ Erebus  _ gets her first able-bodied seawoman. 

**Author's Note:**

> -this is an everyone lives au by virtue of me not wanting to see anything bad happen to any of the animal friends so just imagine that after they discover the passage and come home as heroes, jacko is THE artists' model. she's SERVING.  
-david young and tartnell are on terror in the show but we're operating on historical rules here so they're on erebus  
-i'm [@nedlittle](https://nedlittle.tumblr.com) on tumblr and [@kitnotmarlowe](https://twitter.com/kitnotmarlowe) on twitter  



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